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Rock's Backpages is the world's most comprehensive online database of pop music writing, a unique resource unavailable elsewhere online. It contains an
ever-expanding collection of primary-source full-text articles from the music and mainstream press from the 1950s to the present day, along with a collection of
exclusive audio interviews.

Subscriptions to Rock’s Backpages are available for institutional or personal use.

For institutions, Rock's Backpages is provided as an unlimited access subscription, meaning that all staff, students and library patrons have
unrestricted remote and on-site access to each text and audio file in the database. For full terms, please click here.

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Nico: I Always Become The Songs That I Sing

Geoffrey Cannon,
unpublished,
7 March 1970

Author's note, 2018: I took Nico to Julie's in Portland Road in 1970. Its style was inspired by Biba. Magnetic people sat around on sofas and attracted attention. "Why haven't you taken me here before?" Nico asked. "This is the first time we have met," I said. "That is true," she said, and I can still imitate how she said this. Also, during the meal: "I'm very interested in murder." The Velvet Underground was long gone then and she had released three solo albums — Chelsea Girl, The Marble Index, and Desertshore. She was now making movies with her then partner Philippe Garrel, and in this interview she talks about La Cicatrice Intérieure (The Inner Scar) She and Philippe wrote and feature in it, with her then 8-year-old son Christian. An extract with English dialogue, which features 'Janitors of lunacy' is on YouTube.

"I always become the characters I play, and the songs I sing," she said, in this transcript of a taped conversation. It was not published at the time. I feel it justifies the free-form interview as a way of capturing the struggles and hesitations of creative people who are trying to find out who they are and can be and what is the nature of reality. I admired Nico and still do. The piece would have been perfect for Andy Warhol's Interview, but I lacked the contacts.

Total word count of piece: 3776

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